The Empath

As much as I want to support the work of female writers, particularly those who worked in this genre at this point in time, I’m afraid there’s no getting around it: this is a bad episode, and the script is largely to blame.

The star Minara is getting ready to blow, and a pair of Federation scientists must be retrieved from a nearby planet before it’s too late. But when the Big Three beam down to handle the pick-up, they discover that the researchers are missing. A security tape reveals that they were both zapped away with no explanation. Then the same fate befalls our heroes.

They find themselves deep underground, in the lair of the Vians (add a “d” and at least you’d have something edible). These guys are almost completely indistinguishable from the Talosians both in their physical appearance and their interest in performing cruel experiments on hapless spacefarers. The twist this time around is that the attractive woman they’re holding captive (played by Kathryn Hays) is an empath. Gem has the truly outrageous (or at least bigger than Barbie) power to absorb other people’s injuries, suffering them herself before they fade away.

The Vians proceed to torture a shirtless Kirk so Gem will have to fix him. They do this either because they want to observe her reactions to the situation or because they’re trying to train her to do something. Whatever they’re after, they don’t seem to be getting it. So they decide to keep one of our heroes on a long-term basis and let the other one go. With Kirk unconscious, Spock pulls an Alexander Haig and decides that he’ll be the one to stay. Then McCoy slips him a spray-injected Mickey Finn and declares himself the Vian victim of choice.

So the psychic buttheads torture him (fortunately allowing him to keep his shirt on). Gem comes to the rescue, and this time around they’re satisfied with her performance. As it turns out, the impending nova will wipe out two civilized planets, and this whole time they’ve been trying to figure out if they should save Gem’s people or the other set.

And that brings to the forefront the central problem with this episode: it poses question after question and then stubbornly refuses to answer any of them. The biggest puzzle is the contradictory behavior of the Vians. They appear to be wasting a lot of time with their little torture games. Mightn’t their efforts be better directed at saving as many people as possible and working out their worthiness later? And if they’re compassionate enough to want to save people to begin with, why are they so preoccupied with Nazi-ish obsessions such as eugenics and torture?

For that matter, if two entire civilizations are about to be wiped out, why is the Enterprise in the system with no nobler mission than picking up a pair of Star Fleet scientists? Mission fail on that count, by the way. The Vians have their pain-contorted corpses stored in big Brocktoon jars. In other words, the whole episode is a big, muddled mess. The confusing dialogue and meandering plot also help make this one genuinely hard to watch.

Episode rating:

Stardate: 5121.0

Episode type: Powerful alien

Written by: Joyce Muskat

Original air date: December 6, 1968

Wink of an Eye / Elaan of Troyius

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